James Montgomery to play show at Amazing Things

Harmonica wizard James Montgomery, who's been singing and playing the blues for 40 years, will make his first appearance at Amazing Things Arts Center in Framingham on Friday, Sept. 11.

Chris Bergeron

The blues are coming to town.

Harmonica wizard James Montgomery, who's been singing and playing the blues for 40 years, will make his first appearance at Amazing Things Arts Center in Framingham on Friday, Sept. 11.

"I'm bringing a killer band, the best in the business," said the Detroit native. "We're going to have an absolute ball with it."

The James Montgomery Blues Band will play at 8 p.m. in Amazing Things' renovated Hollis Street center. Tickets are still available.

Montgomery's blues pedigree extends back to the late 1960s when he played at age 19 with legendary performers John Lee Hooker, James Cotton and Junior Wells.

He remembered making the two-hour drive to Detroit as a teenager to listen to them play the blues in a famous club named "Chessmate."

"When I heard those blues for the first time, I saw 'Wow! That's what I want to do,"' said Montgomery.

While still in high school, he started the "first white blues band in Detroit" which he called "The Pocket Blues Series" in tribute to a series of books published by Beat Generation poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

While studying English at Boston University, Montgomery started his blues band which burst onto the Boston music scene in 1971, first playing in little clubs like the Candlelight Lounge in Cambridge before attracting national attention at a large anti-war rally on the Boston Common.

Over the years, he's recorded six albums, toured with Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, Bonnie Raitt, the Allman Brothers, Steve Miller and many others.

Montgomery said he expects to play a mix of perennial hits, audience favorites and new material at his show in Framingham.

He's "just finishing" a new CD he plans to title "From Detroit to the Delta." It'll feature music by James Cotton, Johnny Winter, members of Aerosmith and DMC.

For his Framingham show, Montgomery will be accompanied by bassist Dave Hall, guitarist George McCann and drummer Seth Pappas.

"This band is in great shape," said Montgomery, who is also president of the New England Blues Society.

Over the last year, Montgomery has been especially busy.

In 2008, he and the band performed at a major Boston charity event at the request of DenisLeary, Michael J. Fox and Cam Neeley. They performed twice in Symphony Hall, once to open an 80th birthday party for B.B. King and once at the invitation of Doug Flutie and Boston Pops Orchestra conductor Keith Lockhart to honor Flutie's contributions to the community.

In a telephone interview, Montgomery said he now likes to see audiences respond to the blues physically, rather than just cerebrally.

"When I had my first blues band, it used to bug me when people would get up and dance," he said. "Now I hate it when people just listen."

For Amazing Things Arts Center founder and executive director Michael Moran, "bringing James Montgomery to Amazing Things is a huge coup for us."

Moran said he booked Montgomery in response to customer demand and hopes to bring in more top quality blues performers in the future. "We hope to really establish Amazing Things as a venue where audiences can come and hear great blues," he said.

Waxing nostalgic, Moran recalled living and working in Boston in the 1970s when Montgomery, J. Geils and Aerosmith crashed the prevailing folk and rock music scene. "James has been playing the blues now for 40 years. There's not a lot of them still playing," he said. "He is, like, heavy blues."

Larry Carsman, one of Montgomery's earliest musical collaborators, recalled his old friend and band mate as "one of the true blues performers."

Now a Wellesley resident, Carsman, also a Detroit native, came to Boston in 1970 and played with Montgomery for about two years. He remembered earning $10 a night with Montgomery playing now-defunct Boston dive clubs.

"James has incredible charisma on and off the stage," Carsman said. "He's an authentic guy. When he plays, he invites you into his space."

Montgomery said he's not troubled that, in the age of pop, rap and alternative music, blues remains a "niche market."

"I don't know if I want blues to be more popular. By definition, that would make it pop," he said. "Look what's happened to country. Is Shania Twain country? She might as well be Whitney Houston or Christina Aguilera. For blues to cross over and remain crossed over, I think you'd have to change its nature."

Montgomery and several band mates have just returned from Clarkesville, Miss., where they were guests of actor Morgan Freeman at his nightclub, Ground Zero. They performed a song they wrote for a movie which is being filmed at the club.

"It was a real juke joint," said Montgomery. "It was all about music, dancing and sex. Nothing wrong with that."

MetroWest Daily News

THE ESSENTIALS:

Amazing Things Arts Center is at 160 Hollis St., Framingham.

The James Montgomery Blue Band will play Friday, Sept. 11 at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $20; students and seniors, $19; and members, $17.

For tickets, call 508-405-2787 or visit www.amazingthings.org.

To learn more about James Montgomery, visit www.jamesmontgomery.com.

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